Self-Driving Ubers Find a New Home after California Revokes Their Registrations

Pete Bigelow

Dec 23, 2016

Uber

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At least for now, Uber won’t be testing self-driving cars on the streets of San Francisco.

Determined to make the ride-hailing company play by the same rules as others who test autonomous vehicles in the state, the California Department of Motor Vehicles revoked registrations Wednesday for the 16 autonomous vehicles Uber had briefly operated in the Bay Area. Hours later, Uber announced it would remove the cars from the road.

Those developments marked the latest twists in a feud that Uber stoked with California regulators earlier this month, when it deployed autonomous cars in San Francisco without first obtaining a testing permit.

Although the permit costs $150 and can be obtained in roughly three days, Anthony Levandowski, head of Uber’s autonomous driving unit, said the company defied regulators on principle. He argued Uber didn’t need a permit because it is developing advanced driver-assist systems, not a true self-driving car.

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“California may not want you, but we do.” – Doug Ducey, Arizona governor

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“It doesn’t apply to us, so there’s no reason to get into regulations,” he said. “You don’t get into suspenders if you’re wearing a dress.”

Both sides appear to have left open the possibility that Uber would return to testing in California. For now, Uber says it has found a new proving ground for its cars.

“Our cars departed for Arizona this morning by truck,” an Uber spokesperson said Thursday. “We’ll be expanding our self-driving pilot there in the next few weeks, and we’re excited to have the support of Gov. Ducey.”

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey has capitalized on the dispute and rolled out the welcome mat for Uber, which joins Ford, General Motors, Google, and Local Motors in testing autonomous vehicles in the state.

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Volvo

“While California puts the brakes on innovation and change with more bureaucracy and more regulation, Arizona is paving the way for new technology and new business,” Ducey said Thursday. “This is about economic development, but it’s also about changing the way we live and work. Arizona is proud to be open for business. California may not want you, but we do.”

This is also about safety. On Monday, at the height of Uber’s standoff with California, the company conceded shortcomings exist in the way its autonomous technology distinguishes bike lanes, flaws that could be potentially lethal for bicyclists. An Uber spokesperson says it is working on a fix, and in the meantime, it has instructed all its human vehicle operators to take command of vehicles when turning through bike lanes.

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“We’re already getting reports of their robot cars running red lights and other drivers slamming on brakes to avoid a crash.” – John Simpson, Consumer Watchdog

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That’s one example of a potential safety problem that points to a broader truism: Autonomous technologies are still in their infancy, and regulators in California—and to some degree elsewhere—are interested in evaluating the reliability of self-driving systems before letting the vehicles mix with other cars, bikes, and pedestrians on public roads. In California, permit-holding companies must submit annual reports on the number of times their technology disengages and the number of times test drivers intervene.

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Executives are using these reports as a rough measure of which companies are progressing and which are lagging in the larger race to create and deploy self-driving technology. If Uber obtained a permit, the company would be subject to the same filings, prompting concern that Uber is avoiding a permit because it does not want to share these statistics—something Levandowski refutes.

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“Uber has claimed they’re refusing to get permits ‘on principle,’” said John Simpson, privacy director for the nonprofit organization Consumer Watchdog. “That’s nonsense. They just don’t want to reveal how flawed and dangerous their robot cars are. We’re already getting reports of their robot cars running red lights and other drivers slamming on brakes to avoid a crash.”

California was once considered an ideal location to test self-driving technologies precisely because it was one of a handful of states that have established a regulatory framework for testing. But in recent years, industry executives have found the regulations restrictive and opted to run at least some portion of their testing in states with no laws that address self-driving cars, such as Colorado and Pennsylvania, where Uber and its subsidiary Otto have conducted public-road tests. Whatever the misgivings, California remains an undisputed leader in autonomous testing, with 20 companies currently permitted to test 130 autonomous vehicles in the state.

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One day, Uber hopes to join that crowd. Despite the public disagreement, the company said it intends to continue its dialogue and eventually test in the state. A spokesperson said Uber remains “100 percent committed to California and will be redoubling our efforts to develop workable statewide rules.”